The present invention is related to the field of computer systems, and in one aspect to processing of specialized hardware resources such as computer graphics units.
In the field of computer graphics, it is known to use specialized graphics processing units or GPUs to provide hardware-based acceleration of certain graphics operations. As an example, a contemporary GPU may perform operations such as texture mapping, high-speed polygon rendering, and shading in hardware circuitry having a highly parallel structure for high processing throughput. Processing performed by a GPU is generally for purposes of rendering graphical images of an application program on a graphical display. GPUs are especially useful for many graphics-intensive computer applications, including video games and high-end graphical composition and editing tools for example.